Guidelines

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This Year's Guidelines

Mission Statement

The annual Postconference Publication is a permanent record of papers presented at the conference that are likely to be useful and enlightening for teachers in practice, especially present and future JALT members. Papers are expected to report on recent research and innovative pedagogy and be well founded on a review of previous work.

Call for Submissions

As a noncommercial presenter at JALT2018, you are cordially invited to submit a paper based on your presentation for publication in the official 2019 Postconference Publication, Diversity and Inclusion. In the same way that your presentation was vetted prior to the conference, your conference paper will also be subjected to peer review. The Publication also functions as an important reference point for foreign language teaching in Japan and beyond. We would therefore like to strongly encourage you to submit a paper.

To do so, please follow these guidelines carefully. Articles may be in English or Japanese. If you wish to submit a paper in another language, please contact the editor (acceptance is dependent on the availability of qualified reviewers and editors).

Format: Due to the large numbers of papers being published in recent years, the Postconference Publication is published online only.

Deadline: January 4, 2019. Submissions can be made at any time from now. All papers must be submitted by January 4, 2019. Submissions after that date will not be considered.

Select Postconference Publication. You will see a MAKE A SUBMISSION link on the right. Follow the steps.

Follow the steps to complete your submission.

You can check on the progress of your review and on the editing process through your author page in the journal.

Selection and Editing Procedure

Once your paper has been received, it will be given an initial review by the editors. Each paper that is judged as being suitable for possible publication is sent to two Reading Committee members for review. These readers will do a blind review (i.e., they will review the copy from which you have removed your name and personal information). When possible, papers are sent to readers who have an interest in your field.

By early 2019, the readers will hopefully have finished their reviews and will have uploaded their feedback and recommendations. General feedback will be available for you to read, while specific recommendations will be available only to the editors.

Once the reading process is complete, all authors will be contacted about the status of their papers.

Papers that are positively reviewed will be assigned a content editor to work with on any editing, rewriting, or correction of papers. This should be completed by June. At this time, the editors will make the final selection of papers that are of a publishable standard. This selection will be based on feedback from both the reading committee and the content editor you have been working with as well as the quality of the finished paper.

Articles will be sent for copyediting and layout, after which authors and editors will complete a final check.

Layout will be completed and final versions uploaded to the website. We intend to have everything completed before the end of the summer vacation . . . whether this is possible depends on the speed with which rewriting and editing take place.

If you have any queries, please get in touch. Thank you for your contribution to this Postconference Publication. We’re looking forward to collaborating on what promises to be a memorable volume of work! If you have any questions that are not answered here or are having problems related to this site or your paper, please contact the editors [proc_editor (at) jalt-publications.org].

Important Note: Outside of contact with a content editor, correspondence regarding your submission will be completed through the online system used for submitting and reviewing. In the past, email messages sent through this system have occasionally gone into “spam” or “junk” email folders, resulting in missed deadlines and other problems. Authors are strongly encouraged to check or disable these folders so as not to lose important messages. When authors do not respond to messages, their submission is considered inactive and may ultimately be rejected.

Conditions for Inclusion

Only authors who actually presented at the conference are eligible to submit a paper to the Postconference Publication.

Generally, the editors will not publish papers promoting a commercial product or service, but such presenters should consult with the editors if they have a question about suitability for inclusion.

Presenters may submit one paper individually and any number of coauthored papers. Usually only one paper may be submitted for each presentation, though consideration will be given to separate papers from multiple presenters in the case of forums or panels (please consult the editors first).

Submission of Materials

Please note that due to the large number of papers that need to be processed, incomplete submissions (e.g., lacking translated abstracts or necessary graphics), incorrectly formatted submissions (see the sample file available above), or excessively long papers will NOT be considered for inclusion.

For all submissions, prepare the following materials:

Contact details (name, address, telephone, email), paper title, author name(s) with institutional affiliation, abstract (150 word maximum). These will be input directly into our online journal system and do not need to be uploaded as a file.

One copy of the manuscript with all graphics, charts, and tables included or clearly indicated but with all authors’ names, all identifying information, and bio data removed. This is called the blind copy and is the primary upload file that will be used by the Reading Committee to evaluate your paper.

One copy with author names and affiliations included, to be uploaded as a supplementary file.

All graphics and charts in their native format (e.g., Excel, jpg, png) as separate, clearly labeled files, to be uploaded as supplementary files.

At the time of submission, authors must also include a translation of the abstract:
a. English papers must have a Japanese translation of the abstract.
b. Japanese papers must have an English translation of the abstract.
c. For papers written in a language other than English or Japanese, authors must submit an abstract in that other language, together with a translation in English.

Note: In all cases, it is the responsibility of the writer(s) to provide an accurate translation of the abstract. JALT does not provide translation services. Papers will not be considered for inclusion if they do not have accurate bilingual abstracts at the time of submission.

Article Types and Word Lengths

Note: Word lengths include tables, graphs, endnotes, references, and all text in the main body of the paper. There is a separate word allocation for the title (up to 10 words), for the abstract (up to 150 words), for the bio data (up to 75 words for each writer), and for any appendices (no more than one-third the length of the paper as a rule of thumb).

Group 1: Papers, Workshops, and Poster Presentations

Not more than 4,000 words. A paper of less than 2,500 words is unlikely to be chosen for publication.

Include a combination of classroom practice, theory, and research.

Group 2: Colloquia, Forums, and Plenary Sessions

Not more than 5,000 words.

Reflect the presentation proposals accepted by the Conference Programming Committee.

Writers should consult the summaries of each participating presenter for help in organizing the paper.

All colloquia and forum presenters should be involved in the writing process—at the very least, to comment on the content.

In all cases, the paper must be written by one or more of the participating presenters.

All presenters listed as coauthors are expected to participate equally in the drafting and editing of the paper.

Manuscript Guidelines

JALT uses the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 6th edition, as a style guide. The only difference from the APA 6th edition is the noncentering of headings. Consult the sample documents available from links above or recent issues of the Postconference Publication for examples of layout and referencing in JALT Publications.

Use a common 12-point font throughout, except within tables where smaller font sizes may be necessary. Use 1.5x line spacing.

Remove all page headers and footers.

Do not use footnotes. Endnotes can be included immediately after the main text, but should be kept to a minimum.

The whole manuscript should be left aligned—including titles, headers, and reference list—with a ragged right edge.

Paragraphs are indented except when immediately following headings. Other paragraphs may be indented using ONE tab space, though if possible, use the indenting controls to create the indent. Do NOT use the space key please!

Allow one blank line (double return) between the preceding paragraph and a new header.

Level 1 headers should be in bold, level 2 headers in bold italic, and level 3 headers in plain italic. Headers should be left aligned and not numbered.

Use only ONE space between sentences.

If you are using Excel graphs or figures, include the original file with your submission as well as inserting it in your paper (or clearly identifying where it is to be placed).

Likewise, any graphics must also be included as separate files in TIFF, PICT, GIF, or JPEG format with your submission (for other file formats, contact the editors first).

Tables should be set out using your software’s table layout tools. Keep tables simple; do not nest tables within tables; do not put the table title within the table. Do NOT use Excel for tables. Use the table feature of your word-processing program.

All material from outside sources (including the authors’ previous work) must be properly cited. Plagiarism and self-plagiarism will result in automatic rejection of the paper and may result in the author being banned from submitting papers to JALT Publications in future.

Copyright of included items: If you intend to include graphics, lyrics, or other material obtained from copyrighted sources, permission to publish these must be obtained prior to submission. A copy of this permission must be sent to the editors in order for the paper to be accepted.

Reference lists should be formatted according to APA 6th edition (see previous issues of the Postconference Publication or the model text for examples) except that the left margin should be straight (the indents will be added later). Do not use underlining for titles, but use italics and plain text only. Use one carriage return only at the end of each reference, not within the reference. Please note that some citation management software tools are not always reliable and reference lists can be incorrectly formatted by them. It is the author’s responsibility to check the formatting of the reference list. Authors must add digital object identifiers (DOIs) to all references that have them. See the style guide for examples.

The Postconference Publication editors welcome all submissions and encourage a wide range of viewpoints in the papers. That said, time and editorial limitations make it impossible to accept all submitted papers. Major factors in successfully completing the selection process include adherence to guidelines as well as clarity and appropriateness for the intended audience. Authors are urged to

Have papers read by at least two supportive readers. Experience shows this is a useful way for authors to acquire and maintain a good sense of audience and focus.

Avoid lengthy introductions and extensive bibliographical reviews; references should be used to support the smooth development of the text only.

Clarify the main points with examples, details, or both. Ask peer readers to check whether everything is sufficiently clear and elaborated in the text.

Give papers a clear sense of voice: That is, write in a direct and personalized style, where the imagined reader is an interested, but critically minded teacher.

Selection

The editors will select papers from a variety of content areas to create a balance in the Postconference Publication. Because of the time involved in getting the Postconference Publication out prior to the next JALT Conference, the editors do not accept papers needing large amounts of editing or formatting. Submitted papers should be in a finalized form and must not have been previously published elsewhere. If you are submitting an adapted version of a previously published paper, you will need to obtain permission to reprint from the publisher of the original. A copy of the written permission should be included as a supplementary file when you submit the paper. In such cases, add a citation notice along the lines of “This paper is an adaptation of a paper that first appeared in . . . ” Failure to make a citation to one’s own work that has been published elsewhere will be regarded as self-plagiarismand result in the rejection of the paper.

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Where do you want to go?

To access the latest JALT Publications, please visit the JALT website and log in (Note: You will need to be a current JALT member).

All material published more than six months ago is openly accessible on this site.

To submit an article or other material to The Language Teacher, JALT Journal, or the Postconference Publication, please see the "Submission Guidelines" listed under each publication.